Commuters may soon pay to park

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 30, 2005

First Selectman Rudy Marconi is conducting a study to determine what the fee should be and wants to start charging by July.
"We'd rather not have to do it. Allowing free parking there promotes travel by rail, freeing up traffic on Route 7," Marconi said. "But given maintenance costs and the fact that the whole parking lot needs to be redone, we have to start charging. Hopefully, it won't negate people riding the train."
Marconi said Branchville is the only rail station lot on the Danbury line not charging for parking. With 150 parking places at the Branchville lot, Marconi hopes the fee may actually free up some parking spots.
"I'm not sure how many commuters are driving the back way over from Bethel to use Branchville, avoiding the fee to park in their town," Marconi said.
Parking at the Bethel station lot is 25 cents an hour by meter or $150 for an annual pass from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. The pass is pro-rated so a commuter buying one in July would pay $75.
"All money received from parking at the lot is used for maintenance of the lot, the building, electric," said Bethel Comptroller Barry Curina. "We're required by the DOT (which owns the lot) to have a five-year audit with any surplus split 50-50 with the state."
The DOT requires this of all towns charging for parking at station lots.
Many Ridgefield commuters use the Katonah, N.Y., station to ride Metro-North into New York City. Katonah charges $350 for a yearly pass for residents and $700 annually for non-residents, according to the Bedford Parking Bureau. New Canaan charges $3 a day or $336 for an annual pass, also pro-rated.
Jennifer Reid and her daughter, Katy, of Ridgefield, don't park at the Branchville station often, but they used it to go to New York City shopping on Wednesday afternoon.
They were surprised to hear the town plans to begin charging for parking.
"I use this station any time I go to New York," Reid said. "I'm shocked they're going to start charging people."
While Reid wouldn't mind spending a few dollars on parking, she said "free parking is one of the nice things about this station. I'm probably going to start asking people to drop me off here."
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Correspondent Jamie Garzon contributed to this article.